Next year in Jerusalem

It's Tea Time for Your Soul from Jerusalem. I am literally writing to you from Zion. I'm fighting internet connections and the clock to fulfill my weekly commitment to share a spiritual thought God has given me that week.
Spending one week in Israel has given me more spiritual lessons than I could ever write. I tried to blog each day (http://www.soulsistertime.blogspot.com/), but it is so difficult to put into words what I am learning about God's love by coming here.
I've thought about Moses quite a bit, especially yesterday when we were recommitting our baptism vows at the Jordan River. Moses never came here while he was alive, but he spent his whole life leading people here. That is not a bad life!
We stood at the place that Joshua led the Israelites out of slavery and into this land of milk and honey. It is the same place that Jesus began His ministry by being baptized by John. Through Jesus' life, death and resurrection, those who believe in Him are led into the promises of God and eternal life.
This is the best way to come to Israel. Beginning in the desert strengthens you and gives you what you need to fully enter the land of promise. You've got to know that the Israelites had finally put their trust in God's promises as they passed through the Jordan and conquered Jericho. Though the land just over the ridge is lush and beautiful, when you first come through it is arid and dry.
Immediately after his baptism, the Holy Spirit led Jesus to the desert. Making my decision to come to Jerusalem at this time was a desert experience for me. What I have discovered is that the desert is a rich and beautiful place. The vast, barren wasteland is all you see at first. If the Holy Spirit leads you here, it means that He will show you the rich beauty and strength that a desert experience will grant to a soul.
If the Holy Spirit ever leads you here, be prepared to realize His glory manifesting in you in a richer and fuller way.

At the end of Passover everyone raises a glass and states "Next year in Jerusalem." Whether you ever go there physcialy, you will go there one day if you put your faith in Jesus and receive His gift of salvation. The new Jerusalem will be everything God has planned. You can read about it in Revelation 21.

A Pilgrimage that Started with Tears

Who would think I would shed tears deciding to set out on a wonderful journey that I have longed to take for many years? Before I was ready to fully accept God’s invitation for a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, I had to journey to a place of agreement between what my soul wanted and what the Lord wanted for me. For years I have been declining opportunities to travel to Israel—not because I didn’t want to go but because I wanted to go with my husband by my side. I know that God could have arranged that for me, but instead He asked me to accept that He wanted me to be willing to go and leave everything behind. When I was asked to make a decision about going on a Pilgrimage to Jerusalem, God gave me this verse in answer to my prayer -- Debi, observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess (Deuteronomy 11:8). I decided through tears that I would go on

Day Nine - Journey's End

I didn't think I could write today, but do to bad weather we now have extra time at the airport. Today we looked over the model city and I can't believe all I have learned. Some of the excavations since the model was completed reveal differences in what they built in the model. What amazed me was that I could see what wasn't where I expected based on what I experienced. Here is a wide view of the Model City which is 1:5 scale. It was created by a Jewish man who wanted his son to understand what Jerusalem was once like. Someone said that if you didn't see Jerusalem during the time of Herod the Great, you have never seen a beautiful city. Do you understand what I mean about how grand this Temple was? Next we saw the Dead Sea Scrolls. I learned a lot about the Essenes. They lived like monks today. Like Jesus, they were not happy with the way the Temple was being run and they came to the desert to offer truly holy sacrifices, untainted by the mismanage

Not Treating Others as Their Sins Deserve

Turning the other cheek has become a Christian cliché. These beautiful and penetrating words of Jesus are minimized when we humans try to apply them without God. The best we can do to achieve Jesus’ description in our power is repress our anger about the way someone sins against us. This only serves to make us look stupid to the world, creates ulcers, or causes an unplanned, embarrassing, public explosion of anger. Jesus spoke these words and many others like them to invoke the spiritual understanding that it is impossible to live out His directions for our lives without Him. He has no intention of our trying to take His work on in our flesh. It happens all the time in marriages and other relationships where one person who thinks they need to be a certain way to please God centers his or her relationships around keeping peace. I don’t believe that kind of turning the other cheek is very pleasing to God. No, God is inviting us

Soul Sister Time

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